To be published in: Obrador Pons, P., Travlou, P. and Crang, M. (eds.) (forthcoming 2008) Doing Tourism: Cultures of Mediterranean Mass Tourism. Aldershot: Ashgate.Hosts and Guests, Guests and Hosts: British residential tourism in the Costa del Sol 1Karen OReillyWhen Pau Obrador Pons first asked if I would like to contribute to this book on tourism cultures in the Mediterranean I immediately said yes. I have been studying and writing about British migrants in Spain for over ten years, and have been a member of the community as a second-home owner or peripatetic migrant for much of that time2. Most of my work has been at pains to point out that these migrants do not see themselves as tourists. They mark themselves out in opposition to tourists. They say we live here or we are here to stay. They talk about tourists as other, as a nuisance, as them not us, as the visitors who come and take up their time and want to be shown around, as family who think they (the migrants) are always on holiday (OReilly 2003). On the other hand it has been undeniable in everything I write that this is a tourism-informed mobility (cf. Williams and Hall 2002). The migrants live in a tourist place, alongside tourists, sharing in tourist spaces and activities, spending time with tourists at work and play, often living leisured lives marked by tourist activities. British migration to Spain has been concentrated very much in the coastal zones which have been developed for tourism, with the infrastructure, tourist objects, activities, and services tourists are deemed to require. This argument has been pursued elsewhere (see OReilly 2003), but what continues to fascinate me about the Brits in Spain and sustained me in writing about this migration on and off for so many years, is the incredible contradictions that mark the migrants lives, their identities, their experiences, dreams, aspirations, and frustrations. Their relationship to Spain is circumscribed by the fact that for them Spain symbolises holiday and escape (and tourism), but they insist they are not tourists themselves. They declare a love of Spain while reminding each other we are guests here. They say we live here and yet go home regularly. They say they want to integrate in Spain yet make little effort to put such aspirations into practice. They express a love of Spain but often seem to have a vague understanding of its culture and customs (OReilly, 2000 and 2007; King et al 2000; Rodriquez et al 1998). Yet even as I write these things I know I am making a lie of other things I have written, where I have argued that many British in Spain do not go home all the time, or that most do want to integrate and do try to settle (OReilly 2007). I have had to distinguish those who live in Spain all year round (what I have called full residents) from those who spend some of the year in Spain (seasonal, peripatetic or returning residents). And even then there are those who are simply experiencing life in Spain for a while and those who have committed themselves emotionally and financially and cannot easily return to the UK. There are some who spend a little time each year in Spain, but consider UK to be home, and others who live in Spain but regularly spend a little time back home (OReilly 2000). A key problem with ethnographic research is that one becomes so familiar with individual people and individual lives it becomes impossible to continue to talk both generally and honestly about a group. But however much I go round and round in circles trying to understand and explain these people and their problems and pleasures, intentions and impacts, it is impossible to deny their relationship to tourism and the way cultures of tourism impact on their lives. It is also impossible to deny the impact their cultures of tourism have on the surrounding areas, people and things. I am beginning to think that the term residential tourism, that many Spanish use to describe them, is actually a useful term after all, though I have avoided it because the migrants themselves argue against it. There is an extent to which all these migrants are turning tourism into a way of life and an extent to which the very contradictions outlined above are the very core of what they are and how they live3.Things and Actions: Materiality and PerformanceUsually I like to work inductively, entering the field, observing, joining in, and learning about peoples lives from their own perspective before stepping out, seeing what sense I can make of it all for others, or how what I have witnessed and experienced can be translated or made sense of using theories and concepts to frame the various general themes I wish to explicate (OReilly 2005). However, for this chapter I have proceeded somewhat counter-intuitively. Pau Obrador (in the book proposal for this book or cross ref to editorial chapter?) describes a new approach to tourism and culture that accounts for the re